Sherlock 4.1
Jan. 1st, 2017 10:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tealinJust watched 'The Six Thatchers' – first reactions –
I do mean SUPER SPOILERY, stop now if you clicked without reading the cut text.
You sure?
Okay ...
It was nice to see a bit of mystery-solving. Frankly I was expecting the whole series to be, in one way or another, therapy. So a case actually driving the plot – and roughly a canon one at that – was good to see. Obviously they couldn't possibly have restrained themselves for a whole ninety minutes, but it was nice of them to make the gesture.
Also pleasantly relieved to see that Mark Gatiss is still the best. And still enjoying himself, which probably isn't unrelated.
I have a fairly limited media pool, and it happens to include a number of people involved with this show, so Antarctica (Mark Gatiss), The Omen (Martin Freeman), and Liechtenstein (Benedict Cumberbatch) all made me laugh. I don't know if they were intended to be inside jokes but they felt like it, and that's what counts.
Couldn't shake the impression that quite a lot of the graffiti in the background is meaningful in some way. It was just so visible. Want to translate some of the Russian stuff just to see, but it's probably veiled references I wouldn't get.
So, if:
Also a lot of highly visible red phoneboxes. But then I suppose that's kind of the point of red phoneboxes.
I was much less distracted by Borough Market than I was expecting to be, given that it's one of my favourite places in London, but boy was I ever distracted by the floating walls in Sherlock's therapist's office. What's the idea behind that? I mean? Bit draughty, eh? Converted churches not being known for their excellent heating efficiency in the first place? The walls don't look removable and the spaces beyond seem to be unused white space, not other offices, though if they were the notion of client-therapist confidentiality would be questionable? So distracted.
... Which is a sort of lead-in to a bigger issue; one of the many things I loved so much about this series when it started is that I felt confident that the filmmakers were 100% on top of things as well as reading my mind and being 3-5 steps ahead at all times. I'm not feeling that so much anymore. They're still being clever, and keeping up surprises with main plot twists and stuff, but the CG overlays are frequently superfluous and not as insightful or crucial of a storytelling technique as they formerly were, and they seem to be letting style take the lead from substance more and more. If they started over now, I have the feeling they'd make Molly's lab some dimly-lit CSI thing rather than the sterile fluorescent authentic-feeling location that it is.
I was glad they didn't keep dangling Moriarty throughout the episode, though. That would have felt cheap. I was very much expecting that. This wasn't a Moriarty episode so they left him out, except when useful. Good.
OK REALLY STOP NOW IF YOU DON'T WANT THE SUPER SPOILERS
Before anyone starts complaining about the fridging of a certain major character, may I remind you of the high turnover rate of a certain other character's spouses in the canon? You knew as soon as she was introduced that the clock was ticking. At least they made her awesome while she was with us, and her death not a handwavey background event like it is in the books. Like all their deaths are in the books. To the point where it's not even clear how many there were.
And that's the point at which my recollection expires ...
Lest you think I am being too critical, I did really enjoy watching it, which to be perfectly honest I was not expecting to do. It's a nice feeling, that buzzing of the fannish nerve; I thought it might be a thing of the past. There have been so many media disappointments, and it seems prohibitively difficult to carry a franchise on this long without dropping the ball somehow, especially when it's got an enormous and very vocal fandom which is tempting and/or rewarding to pander to (or mess with). They've walked a very narrow line with this show and so far done it remarkably successfully ... we'll see if it lasts the whole series!
I do mean SUPER SPOILERY, stop now if you clicked without reading the cut text.
You sure?
Okay ...
It was nice to see a bit of mystery-solving. Frankly I was expecting the whole series to be, in one way or another, therapy. So a case actually driving the plot – and roughly a canon one at that – was good to see. Obviously they couldn't possibly have restrained themselves for a whole ninety minutes, but it was nice of them to make the gesture.
Also pleasantly relieved to see that Mark Gatiss is still the best. And still enjoying himself, which probably isn't unrelated.
I have a fairly limited media pool, and it happens to include a number of people involved with this show, so Antarctica (Mark Gatiss), The Omen (Martin Freeman), and Liechtenstein (Benedict Cumberbatch) all made me laugh. I don't know if they were intended to be inside jokes but they felt like it, and that's what counts.
Couldn't shake the impression that quite a lot of the graffiti in the background is meaningful in some way. It was just so visible. Want to translate some of the Russian stuff just to see, but it's probably veiled references I wouldn't get.
So, if:
- Antarctica = Mycroft
- Love = Smallwood
- Porlock = Norbury (her cottage in Cornwall, which I assume connects her to the famous village elsewhere in the West Country)
Also a lot of highly visible red phoneboxes. But then I suppose that's kind of the point of red phoneboxes.
I was much less distracted by Borough Market than I was expecting to be, given that it's one of my favourite places in London, but boy was I ever distracted by the floating walls in Sherlock's therapist's office. What's the idea behind that? I mean? Bit draughty, eh? Converted churches not being known for their excellent heating efficiency in the first place? The walls don't look removable and the spaces beyond seem to be unused white space, not other offices, though if they were the notion of client-therapist confidentiality would be questionable? So distracted.
... Which is a sort of lead-in to a bigger issue; one of the many things I loved so much about this series when it started is that I felt confident that the filmmakers were 100% on top of things as well as reading my mind and being 3-5 steps ahead at all times. I'm not feeling that so much anymore. They're still being clever, and keeping up surprises with main plot twists and stuff, but the CG overlays are frequently superfluous and not as insightful or crucial of a storytelling technique as they formerly were, and they seem to be letting style take the lead from substance more and more. If they started over now, I have the feeling they'd make Molly's lab some dimly-lit CSI thing rather than the sterile fluorescent authentic-feeling location that it is.
I was glad they didn't keep dangling Moriarty throughout the episode, though. That would have felt cheap. I was very much expecting that. This wasn't a Moriarty episode so they left him out, except when useful. Good.
OK REALLY STOP NOW IF YOU DON'T WANT THE SUPER SPOILERS
Before anyone starts complaining about the fridging of a certain major character, may I remind you of the high turnover rate of a certain other character's spouses in the canon? You knew as soon as she was introduced that the clock was ticking. At least they made her awesome while she was with us, and her death not a handwavey background event like it is in the books. Like all their deaths are in the books. To the point where it's not even clear how many there were.
And that's the point at which my recollection expires ...
Lest you think I am being too critical, I did really enjoy watching it, which to be perfectly honest I was not expecting to do. It's a nice feeling, that buzzing of the fannish nerve; I thought it might be a thing of the past. There have been so many media disappointments, and it seems prohibitively difficult to carry a franchise on this long without dropping the ball somehow, especially when it's got an enormous and very vocal fandom which is tempting and/or rewarding to pander to (or mess with). They've walked a very narrow line with this show and so far done it remarkably successfully ... we'll see if it lasts the whole series!
